Government & Politics

Ed Rendell's resumé is impressive: eight years as the District Attorney of Philadelphia, eight years as Mayor of Philadelphia, and eight years as Governor of Pennsylvania. Toss in a stint as the chairman of the Democratic National Committee and you have a long career in government and politics.

Allegheny County's Board of Elections will likely vote in favor of a lawsuit against the state's new voter ID law. The vote is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon.

Democrats on the board are hoping to strike down a law that requires photo identification to be presented before Pennsylvanians can vote. However, the board's lone Republican said the lawsuit is redundant, expensive, and politically motivated.

With the new fiscal year starting July 1, budget talks are quietly continuing in Harrisburg, with state House and Senate GOP leaders saying they're still working on a joint proposal for the governor. Republicans say though Governor Corbett has been saying he'd like to spend "less" than what the legislature's proposed, he only recently identified how much less.

A plan to sell off the state's roughly 600 wine and spirits stores has the support of the governor, but it's still stalling in the House.

House Majority Leader Mike Turzai said his bill's not dead, but he won't say whether the votes are there to pass it.

"It's scheduled to run on Monday," said Turzai.

It isn't the first Monday the plan has been brought up on the House floor. A week ago, debate went on for hours before leaders finally pulled the plug. The proposal wasn't brought up at all for the rest of the week.

President Barack Obama incited a lot of excitement among young voters in 2008, but at a young professionals round table in downtown Pittsburgh Tuesday, a worry about voter apathy was expressed. Actor and former Associate Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement Kal Penn spoke to the small group and asked for input on what the Obama campaign can do to energize young voters. He said the president has been a tireless proponent of issues important to young people, while Republicans have been focused on other issues.

The 2012 Presidential Election campaign is intensifying in Pennsylvania.

President Barack Obama will appear this evening at 8:00 o'clock at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia to raise money for the Obama Victory Fund Campaign, a joint fundraising committee of the Obama re-election campaign, the Democratic National Committee and several state Democratic parties.

The Board of the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority (PWSA) selected Veolia Water North America to provide Executive Management services to the Authority for twelve months with a possible six-month extension.

Jim Good will serve as the PWSA's Executive Director and fill the 18-month vacancy left by the resignation of Michael Kenney in 2010. Another Veolia executive, Doug Amos, will serve as Study Manager for PWSA.

The Secretary of the Air Force, Michael Donley, visited the 911th Airlift Wing Thursday to meet with senior and civic leaders who lobbied him to keep the base open. While there he thanked the airmen for their contributions to national security and continuing focus on their mission.

Budget talks continue in Harrisburg among legislative leaders and the governor. However, those negotiations are happening behind closed doors and without the input of Democrats. Gov. Tom Corbett has not avoided the fact that budget talks have been a Republicans-only affair so far.

"This, it has to be passed by a majority. The Republicans are in the majority in both houses. The discussions that the Democrats have put out there is that they want to continue to spend and at least I have the Republicans trying to save money in some areas," Corbett explained.

The lending industry calls them small-dollar loans. Opponents call them payday loans. State House lawmakers approved a measure to regulate and expand the short term loan industry in the commonwealth.

Such loans tend to be issued with a two-week payback period, and they often come with high interest and fees. The small loans tend to be taken out for a couple weeks at a time, and they often come with high interest rates and fees.

A committee of Allegheny County Council has given an affirmative recommendation to a bill that would transfer the Weights & Measures Division from the Controller's office to the administration. The bill now heads to the full Council for a final vote.

State Senator Mike Stack (D-Philadelphia) and Representative Dan Frankel (D-Allegheny) have introduced legislation aimed at breaking financial ties with companies that do business with Iran. Stack's Senate Bill 1543 and Frankel's House Bill 2427 would specifically go after businesses with direct investment in Iran's energy sector and bar them from bidding on Pennsylvania state contracts.

Former Pennsylvania Senator Jane Orie has been sentenced to serve between 2 and a half to 10 years in prison. The Republican from McCandless was convicted in March of using her legislative staff to do campaign work, and for forging documents to cover up the criminal activity.

The judge will decide within the next 30 days what monetary penalty Orie must pay. That number could go as high as $2 million in legal fees and restitution to the state.

Republican lawmakers in the Pennsylvania state legislature are meeting with Governor Tom Corbett early next week to present a joint spending plan with the intention of passing a budget in mid-June. Procedurally, it falls to the state House to make changes to the Senate's $27.7 billion budget plan, which contains a half-million dollars more than what the governor proposed.

It seems Allegheny County Council is the rope in a political tug-of-war between the County Executive and the County Controller. A pending Council vote will determine which office will have command of the county's Weights & Measures Division.

Pennsylvania State Senator Anthony Williams (D-Philadelphia) has introduced a bill that would require all Pennsylvania school districts to teach students in grades 6-12 about the Holocaust. The Bill would also require schools to teach about genocide, human rights violations, anti-Semitism, racism, and the abridgement of civil rights.

Senator Williams said if today's youth is not educated about this event, it could pave the way for something similar to happen in the future.

Gov. Tom Corbett's top aide is leaving his job as the first-term Republican battles criticism from opponents over his cost-cutting agenda and from allies over his ability to forge policy and broadcast a persuasive and strong public message.

Corbett made no mention of pressure when he announced Thursday that he is nominating his chief of staff and longtime friend William Ward to fill a vacant seat on the Allegheny County Common Pleas Court after 16 months in Harrisburg with Corbett.

Allegheny County Controller Chelsa Wagner said Governor Tom Corbett's proposed budget compromises the tax payers of the county. According to Wagner, the budget will lead to Allegheny County residents being double-taxed by a governor who's from Allegheny County and has a background in law enforcement.

"Yet his budget is cutting our courts, and cutting law enforcement here in Allegheny County, forcing us to pay for those services here in Allegheny County and statewide," said Wagner.

Even as Pennsylvania's Voter ID law goes through legal challenges, one lawmaker is introducing a package of bills aimed at "fixing" parts of the bill. The so-called "Every Voter Counts" package contains three parts. The first part would create an online voter registration system. The second would require the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to use new technology and mobile outreach to help registered voters obtain needed photo identification.

Pennsylvania Senator Jim Ferlo (D-Pittsburgh) is sponsoring a new Certificate of Need (CON) law that would lower health care costs by decreasing duplicate amenities or construction and mold medical facilities' spending based on the needs of the community.

Ferlo said that his proposed CON law would give local governments, unions, corporations, and shareholders a voice in determining whether healthcare expenses are reasonable.

"Despite the expenditure of hundreds of millions of dollars, we're really not meeting the true community need," Ferlo said.

House lawmakers have passed a business-friendly tax measure that would bring the corporate net income (CNI) tax rate down by 3% over the next several years. Whether it's possible to implement such a bill and still balance the budget, however, remains unclear.

"I, at this point today, don't know that we're in any position to reduce the CNI in order to balance this budget," said Governor Tom Corbett. While Corbett said he is still mindful of his campaign promise to consider lowering the CNI rate, he maintained his priority now is on passing a balanced budget.

In 2007, the College Affordability Plan gradually reduced interest rates from 3.4% to 6.8% on Federal Direct Stafford loans. If allowed to expire on July 1st, the interest rates on the student loans will return to 6.8%. U.S. Representative Mike Doyle (D-PA-14) is calling on Senators Pat Toomey (R-PA) and Bob Casey (D-PA) to pass H.R.4816, known as Stop the Rate Hike Act of 2012.

Pittsburgh City Council has given preliminary approval to a bill that would divert parking tax revenue from the former Civic Arena site into a special fund for Hill District redevelopment.

After hours of discussion, the heated debate was cut short and a six-member majority approved the bill. A few Council Members had raised concerns as to the legality and fairness of a special fund to benefit just one neighborhood.

Five state House incumbents have lost their seats in the primary, according to the latest vote counts. But one longtime Republican lawmaker is holding out until the absolute last vote is counted.

Rick Geist has been in the Legislature for 33 years, and if you thought his Tuesday night concession speech was the last word, well, think again. The House Transportation Committee chairman is down by 196 votes to Republican opponent John McGinnis. But there are some-470 absentee ballots that have yet to be counted.